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Printer cartridges
Mar. 31st, 2018 11:29 amOkay this is like, a small annoyance in the greater scheme of things.
But I’m so bent out of shape about my recent printer cartridge adventures that I just bought a whole new printer that doesn’t have them.
Printer cartridges are Very Expensive for a tiny bit of plastic and ink. Like, half the cost of the printer expensive, and I know perfectly well most of that is gouging the customer because you can buy much cheaper ones from third party sellers. However the printer makers have now set up the printer to detect 3rd party cartridges and refuse to work. And sometimes, when you give up and buy Very Expensive cartridges from the printer maker like they wanted, the printer still doesn’t work because the sabotage is permanent for that last little fuck you to the customer.
I had this problem with two printers now. And I am giving up. Two days ago I bought a printer that has tanks that you fill from bottles of ink. (Canon Pixma 3200 for those who are interested; It had slightly better ratings from Consumer Reports and also the brand had a slightly better reliability rating than Epson, also my previous printer was an Epson so I’m not very happy with them right now.) I have put a reminder in my phone to print a page once a week (actually maybe I’d better do this twice a week) so the ink can’t dry out in the spray nozzles, which can be a problem with this type of printer. I’m encouraged to see that the printer came with insertable doohickeys that seem to be the spray nozzles, so they are probably replaceable, but still.
The only down side is I can’t get this printer to work wirelessly at the moment. To be fair I had the problem with the previous printer too. I suspect the issue is that the printer has to know which local WiFi network to choose and also WiFi requires a password. I guess I will call tech support on Monday and see if I can figure that out.
I don’t like setting up new things, but it will be worth it if I never have to spend SEVENTY FIVE DOLLARS on another fracking ink cartridge again.
But I’m so bent out of shape about my recent printer cartridge adventures that I just bought a whole new printer that doesn’t have them.
Printer cartridges are Very Expensive for a tiny bit of plastic and ink. Like, half the cost of the printer expensive, and I know perfectly well most of that is gouging the customer because you can buy much cheaper ones from third party sellers. However the printer makers have now set up the printer to detect 3rd party cartridges and refuse to work. And sometimes, when you give up and buy Very Expensive cartridges from the printer maker like they wanted, the printer still doesn’t work because the sabotage is permanent for that last little fuck you to the customer.
I had this problem with two printers now. And I am giving up. Two days ago I bought a printer that has tanks that you fill from bottles of ink. (Canon Pixma 3200 for those who are interested; It had slightly better ratings from Consumer Reports and also the brand had a slightly better reliability rating than Epson, also my previous printer was an Epson so I’m not very happy with them right now.) I have put a reminder in my phone to print a page once a week (actually maybe I’d better do this twice a week) so the ink can’t dry out in the spray nozzles, which can be a problem with this type of printer. I’m encouraged to see that the printer came with insertable doohickeys that seem to be the spray nozzles, so they are probably replaceable, but still.
The only down side is I can’t get this printer to work wirelessly at the moment. To be fair I had the problem with the previous printer too. I suspect the issue is that the printer has to know which local WiFi network to choose and also WiFi requires a password. I guess I will call tech support on Monday and see if I can figure that out.
I don’t like setting up new things, but it will be worth it if I never have to spend SEVENTY FIVE DOLLARS on another fracking ink cartridge again.
